Electricity

Basic Necessity
Life without electricity
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the simple of idea of a bottle used as light bulb can
bring so much impact to the community, economy, and
global warming.
 Learning outcome
• Define five basic concepts of current, voltage,
resistance and resistivity, e.m.f. and internal
resistance, and power and efficiency
• Calculate these quantities when relevant
information is provided.
• State Ohm’s law
 Learning outcome
• State and explain the effect on resistance
when temperature is raised
• calculate power and efficiency of a electrical
device
 electricity
• Intro: Current Mohan the first real comic hero
electric man
• This man is unusual in terms of his body’s
physiology. Current does not stop his heart.
• His body resistance keeps going up.
 current
• What is current?
• Current – rate of flow of charge
• - rate of flow of electrons
• I = Q/t
• In a metal, the charge flow is caused by free
electrons moving under the effect of an
electric field
•
 current
• In other cases, such as semiconductor, current
is due to the movement of holes and electrons
• In aqueous solution, the charge carriers are
ions
• In air (eg. lightning or plasma), charge carriers
are eletron-ions pairs
• Current is measured by an ammeter
connected in _______
• Measured in ampere (amp, A)
• Ammeter
• Analogue ammeter measures current by the
amount of deflection caused by the magnetic
field and the current that flows through the
coils inside the ammeter
• How many electrons are there in 1 C?
• Ans; 6.25 x 1018 C
• How many electrons move in one second if
the current is 2A?
• Ans: 1.25 x 1019 C
• Let’s say there are N electrons in the conductor
above
• The cross sectional area = A and the length is l
• The conductor has n electrons per unit volume.
This quantity is known as charge density.
Different metals have different n value
• Let’s imagine all the electrons from x to y flow
past point X in one t seconds
• Then I = Q/t = Ne/t
• Now N = V x n = Al x n
• So I = Alen/t
• But l/t = v, the speed of the electrons
• So I = nAve
 voltage
• If an electron on average remain at one spot in
a metal conductor, then what cause electron
to move when a battery is connected to a
wire?
• Work is done by the force to move electron
• The measure of work done per coulomb of
charge flow is known as voltage
• Oops!
• V = E/Q or W/Q
• Unit : volt or JC -1
• Measured by a voltmeter connected in _____
to circuit
• Example:
• A resistor has a voltage of 2V across it. How
much electrical energy is converted to heat if
2 Coulomb of charge flow past it?
• 4J
• Another resistor converts 4 J of electrical
energy to heat when 1 C of charge flows past
it. What’s the voltage?
 resistance
• If a battery causes electrons to move and
therefore sets up voltages across resistors in
circuit, then resistance is the quantity that
determine how much current flows.

• Defined as voltage per unit current flow

• R = V/I
• Unit in ohm, Ω
• Measured by an ohmmeter directly
• Or indirectly by measuring voltage and current
and divide them
• E.g. how much is the resistance if the voltage
is 1 V and the current is 1A.
• def of 1 Ω :
 Ohm’s Law
• If a conductor has a constant resistance when
voltage is changed, then it is said to obey
ohm’s law.
• Ohm’s law: the voltage is directly proportional
to the current flow provided the physical
condition such as temperature remains
constant.
• Example of ohmic conductor: metal wire
• Example of non-ohmic conductor : diode and
light bulb.
Effect of temperature of resistance
• For metal wire, resistance increases when the
wire becomes hot
• For some metal oxide and semiconductor, the
resistance decreases when they become hot.
• This can be explained from theory of collison.
 Effect of temp on resistance of
metal
• When heat is supplied, the atoms in metal
vibrate with greater amplitude
• The electrons collide more frequently with
atoms
• This slows down the speed of free electrons
• From the eqn I = nAve, current decreases.
• For the same voltage, I = V/R, R has increased
 Effect of temp on resistance of
semiconductor
• When heat is supplied, the atoms in semiconductor
vibrate with greater amplitude
• The electrons collide more frequently with atoms
• However, some bonds are broken at higher
temperature resulting in higher charge density.
• Although the speed of free electrons decrease, but n
increase more
• From the eqn I = nAve, current increases
• For the same voltage, I = V/R, R has decreased
decreased
 Resistivity, ρ
• Resistance of a conductor is found to depend
on 3 other quantities:
• A) length
• B) cross sectional area
• C) electrical property known as resistivity
 Resistivity, ρ
• R = ρl/A
• ρ= RA/l
• What is resistivity?
• ρ is the constant of proportionality in the
equation R= ρl/A where R is resistance, l is
length and A the cross section of conductor
 Resistivity, ρ
Another definition is as follow:
Resistivity, ρ is numerically equal
to the resistance across two
opposing surfaces of a cube of
material of unit dimension
Exercise.
a) A platinum wire has a length 100cm, average
diameter of 6.0 x 10-4 m and resistivity 11 x 10-
8
m. Calculate the resistance per unit length
of this wire. Ans: 1.6 Ω/m

b) Distinguish between the resistance and

resistivity of a platinum wire.

b) When 81 cm of a wire with a cross-sectional area

of 3.1 x 10-7 m2 is connected across a 2.0 V cell, a
current of 1.6 A flows in the wire. Find the resistivity
of the material of the wire. Ans: 4.8 x 10-7 m
example
 example
• How much is the resistance of the cable?
• The diameter of each strand = 1 mm
• The resistivity = 2 x 10-8 Ωm
• The length of each strand = 1 meter
• There are 19 strands in the cable.
• ans:1.34 x 10-3 Ω
 Compare resistance R and
Resistivity, ρ
• Resistance is the property of the conductor
• Resistivity is the property of the material
• Resistance is dependent on dimension
• Resistivity is independent of dimension
EMF and terminal pd
Which component enables the light bulb to light up?
 Outcome
• Associate EMF with sources of electrical
energy
• Define EMF in terms of work done per unit
charge flow
• Calculate EMF in simple circuit
• Distinguish EMF from terminal pd
• Determine EMF experimentally
 definition
• EMF (electro motive force)
• Defined as the total work done per unit charge flow to move
charged particles round a circuit.

• E=W
q
• Unit is volt, V

In going round the circuit, the electrical energy will convert to other
forms such as light energy and heat energy (both in external
resistance and internal resistance)
Hence, EMF can also be defined as
Total electrical energy converted to other forms per unit charge flow
around the circuit
Or
Total electrical energy converted from other forms per unit charge
flow around the circuit

E.g.1. In a electrical circuit, the work done by a battery to move 6 C

of charge around the circuit is 60 J. Calculate the e.m.f of the
battery.
Ans: 10 V

e.g. 2. In a circuit containing an ideal light bulb and a fixed

resistance, 30 J and 60 J of light and heat energy is produced
respectively for every 3 C of charge that flows through them. What
is the e.m.f. of the cell?
Ans: 30 V
 Terminal pd
• In the circuit below, the cell has an internal
resistance, denoted as r. Some heat energy will be
produced in the internal resistance as current
flows in the circuit. When a voltmeter is connected
across the cell, as shown in the diagram (left), the
voltmeter is measuring the terminal pd, the
potential difference across the terminals of the
cell.
 Terminal pd
• The voltmeter is also connected across the
components, light bulb and fixed resistor,
known as the external circuit. Hence, the
terminal pd is measuring the pd across the
external circuit.

• If the voltage across the light bulb is 5 V and

across the fixed resistor is 10 V, then the
terminal pd is 15 V.
 Terminal pd and emf
• Total work done per unit charge = total
energy converted to other forms per
unit charge
• Wtotal = light energy + heat energy external resistor + heat energy
internal resistor q q
 How to measure e.m.f?
• 3 possible methods
• C.R.O
• Extrapolation method
• Potentiometer
• All the methods are based on the idea that
e.m.f of a cell is the terminal p.d. when no
current flows from the battery.
• We will cover the first two. Potentiometer
later
Extrapolation method

Current I/A voltage V/V

Connecting emf sources in series
and parallel
 Power in electrical circuit

• Power is def as rate of work done.

• We have seen that work is done by batter/emf
sources in driving charge around in a circuit.
• Along the way, the charged particle will lose
energy. The lost in electrical energy will be
changed into various forms depending on the
component.
• Resistor will produce heat.
• Light bulb will produce light
• Fan will produce KE
 Power in electrical circuit
• For resistor of resistance R and a current flow I,
• P = E/t = QV/t = IV
• Since I = V/R
• P = V2R or I2R
• Unit is watt, W
• Example here

• P = 25 x 220
• = 5.5 kW
 Power in electrical circuit
If it is a motor, remember, the electrical power is
turned into a useful energy though there will be heat
generated as well.

So the formula of IV is not only the power of heat

produced but the power of the mechanical energy
produced.
So if a motor has a rating of 230V, 500 W, it consume
500 J of electrical energy every second at 230V
voltage, but not producing 500 J of heat nor 500 J of
mechanical energy!
 efficiency
• This leads us to the concept of efficiency.
• The desired power output is power of wind (for fan)
or rate of GPE gained (for lift)
• The wasted power is that of the heat
• The input power is that of the electricity
• Def of efficiency (symbol ε or η )
• ε = desired output power/ input power
• Efficiency of a electrical device is quoted in fraction
or % . Eg. 0.3 or 30%
 efficiency
• Example.
• A light bulb has a rating 240 V, 60W. It has an
efficiency of 60%. It is connected to a power
supply of 240 V.
• A. What is the power input?
• B. What is the desired power output? 36 W
• C. How much heat is generated in 10 seconds?
• 240 J
 efficiency
• A toy motor of power 5 W is used to lift up a
load of 10N at constant speed. The load rises
to a height of 2 m in 5 seconds. What is the
efficiency of the motor?

• Ans : mech power = mgh/t = 10 x 2/5 = 4 W

• efficiency = 4/5 x 100 = 80%
 Power and internal resistance
• If a battery of emf E has internal resistance r is
connected to a variable external resistance R,
how does the power across the resistor R
changes with R?
 Power and internal resistance

• Power across R = I2R

• But I = E/R+r
• P = (E/R+r)2R
• This may look complicated. So if you have values of E
and r and substitute values of R, you can get a set of
readings. The graph will look like this
Power and internal resistance
 Power and internal resistance
You will find that the maximum power across R
happens when R = r the internal resistance of the cell.

A mathematical proof is not required but you can use

your differentiation knowledge to do it.
• THE End